Fifth of childhood cancer survivors smoke despite risk

29/07/2008

One in five adult survivors of childhood cancer in Britain smoke despite being at higher risk of developing further new cancers in the future, scientists have found.

A study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute questioned more than 10,000 childhood cancer survivors and found that smoking is most common in survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas and Wilms' tumour.

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People who have survived these three types of childhood cancer are known to face an increased risk of further cancers than most other childhood cancer survivors.

Study author Dr Clare Frobisher, from the University of Birmingham, commented: 'Although our results show that people who survived childhood cancer are less likely to smoke than the general population, it's clear that more work needs to be done to make sure they are aware of their increased risk of a second cancer and other related health problems if they smoke.'

Professor Mike Hawkins, of Cancer Research UK, said that the charity is 'very concerned' by the findings.

He added that, by smoking, survivors are exposing themselves to a 'completely avoidable risk'.

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